A virtual universe or virtual world is a computer-based simulation environment where virtual universe users are intended to inhabit and interact via avatars. A virtual universe user accesses a computer-simulated universe which presents perceptual stimuli to the virtual universe user, who in turn can manipulate elements of the modeled universe or world and thus experiences telepresence to a certain degree. Such modeled universes or worlds may appear similar to the real world or instead may depict fantasy worlds. Virtual universes are not limited to games but can encompass computer conferencing, text based chat rooms and collaborative business applications.
Chat sessions and chat messages are a common method of communication within a virtual universe. Users of virtual universes are diverse; many do not speak, write or otherwise communicate in a common language but are fluent in different languages. Consequently, there are users of virtual universes that are unable to chat or communicate in a common language. Communications within a virtual universe are further hindered because chat messages frequently contain idioms and abbreviated speech that may be difficult or impossible to translate, or translate accurately, via traditional machine translation methods. Moreover, translators may not exist for between all pairs of languages and all pairs of dialects.